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| - Roboflight stretched her legs as she blinked her eyes open. The sun was at its highest, and Firehowl was curled up, still sleeping on the other side of the den. The pack had rested for a day, but Roboflight had decided that they would have to leave in the afternoon, so that they didn't fall too far behind. But it was definitely worth the days rest to be a little behind. The pack was now rested, organized and full. They had spent a lot of time hunting, and trying the food of the jungle. It was true that they would take a mouse, squirrel or bird to them any day, but the food wasn't as repulsive as they thought. There were different kinds of birds, with large fuzzy feather that kept a cat full for a day, and from what Roboflight had herd they didn't taste too shabby, the different rodents that crawled around the ground were juicy and tart. Some of the food, none of the pack would have ate, even if they were starving to death. The large insects and long slimy things were not approached, which Roboflight was grateful for; she wouldn't want them making the small camp smell disgusting. The pack had also done some planning. They couldn't plan which way they would go because they knew nothing of the forest, but they decided at what time of the day they would stop traveling, when they would hunt and who would be assigned to what roles during their journey. Roboflight didn't have anyjob but leading the pack, as through the forest. She couldn't help caring that Featherbreeze would be setting up the dens, and that Driftingcloud would be keeping half of the watches, as much as she hated both of them. Outside of the little den, which could barely contain them, most of the pack was socializing while they ate. Some cats were gone; Roboflight guessed that they were hunting. Petalfall moved aside so that Roboflight could squeeze in between her and Inkpelt. Roboflight suppressed a purr; Petalfall hardly left Inkpelt's side, and she could sense that they would become mates any day now. The cats ate in silence for a long time, until they heard loud footsteps, approaching rapidly. All of the cats jumped to their feet and turned to face the direction the noise was coming from. Roboflight kept her tail down, ready to jump on the intruders. The bushes rattled and Sandpelt dashed through them, Bravescar and Aquatail at his side. Roboflight’s muscles tensed, as did those of the cats around her. They all sat back down, except for Roboflight who greeted the cats. “Hello Sandpelt,” she tried to sound friendly, “Is something wrong?” There obviously wasn’t something wrong, because a huge grin spilt across the pale toms face. His green eyes glittered and Roboflight realized that he was hiding something behind one of his paws, which he had pulled back. Roboflight couldn’t stop her suspicion. She tried to reassure herself that Sandpelt would never bring something that could harm the clan; that three members of the pack would not turn on their friends. She breathed a sigh of relief when Sandpelt purred and asked, “Guess what I caught today while I was hunting!” When Roboflight turned to look at the cats that had gone hunting with him she saw worry and disgust in their eyes, as well as some amazement. Roboflight tried not to show her curiosity, “Spit it out, Sandpelt,” she meowed irritably, “Or at least show it to us!” He grinned, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you…” Slowly he pulled his paw forward. Hidden under it was a large at fat creature, it’s mouth was sticking out at an awkward angle, and it was so long that it was stringy, even being as fat as it was. It was looped around his paw, and there was a small gash on its spotted skin, where the skin appeared to be shedding and blood had dried over. Driftingcloud, who had been talking to Boulderclaw, finally turned around. When she saw the large animal, she screeched and ran back into the den, trying to run away from something that was already dead. Roboflight snorted, Driftingcloud might have the looks, but she was missing out on some serious brain. Roboflight cautiously walked up to the large thing, “What is that?” she asked him and noticing the little fang that were awkwardly sticking out of its mouth, “Did it bite you?” “It’s one of those small slimy things we see on the ground!” he exclaimed, “Only much, much bigger.” “Can they poison you?,” she asked, “Because if it bit you, then you are in risk of dying soon.” He laughed, “It bit me but I doubt that they can poison. Besides, the bite wasn’t that deep,” Roboflight inspected the cut which she now saw, on the side of his forearms, and realized that it was rather deep. There was still some blood flowing out and she sighed. “Well, I guess the only way to find out is to wait,” she sighed, “Honestly, Sandpelt I don’t know what got into your head, running after something like that!” “Maybe some sand!” One of the cats in the back suggested and began to laugh. Roboflight ignored the silly comment and waited for his answer. “Come on!” he grinned pulling the creature up, “This thing will feed the whole pack! How could I turn down such I large offering. I did go out to hunt, after all.” “Eww…” “I’m not eating one of those!” “Help yourself, Sandpelt!” “Suddenly those disgusting bugs seem appetizing,” The pack was buzzing about how gross the thought was and Sandpelt just grinned even more, “Just try it guys! Maybe it will taste like the best thing in the world!” All of the cats looked doubtful, and he shrugged. He walked up to one of his friends and sat down next to him. His friend slid far away from the pale tom, so that the long tail of the animal didn't touch him. With a broad grin on his face the tom stuck its tail in his mouth and bit it off, slowly chewing it, as the clan watched him with excitement. After chewing for a few seconds he coughed, and began to gag, stuffing his paw in his mouth to pull out the little chunks of its tail. When he finally pulled his paw out of his mouth he gasped, then made a sour face. “I guess I should have just left it there.” The pack snorted with agreement. He shrugged, and walked up to the stack of prey, picking out a vole, “At least we know now,” he tried to offer optimistically, “I was dying of curiosity.” Roboflight wasn’t and she doubted that the rest of the pack had been either, but she didn’t tell him, as not to ruin his spirits, which seemed unusually high for someone who was lost on The Mating Quest. “Come on,” Roboflight called to her pack, as they seemed to be lagging behind, “We need to catch up to the other packs!” “Come on!” Driftingcloud moaned, “Roboflight the sun is starting to go down and we’ve been walking for hours. We’ll catch up some other time. I bet the other packs are all resting right now! And I’m hungry,” She rolled her eyes, “Can you keep your mouth quiet for a few seconds, Driftingcloud,” she snapped, “You only make us more tired with your needless complaints! Besides, if the other packs are resting, we should take advantage of the opportunity to get ahead!” Driftingcloud huffed, “Why do you care about winning so much? As long as we complete the quest it should be okay…” Now all of the pack turned on Driftingcloud, with glares that could crack ice. Some cats began murmuring to each other about how unlucky they were to end up with this pack. Roboflight was a little lost on words and Featherbreeze jumped in. “If you don’t understand the point of this quest, then you might as well quit. Just leave the pack, and we will all be happy, because I want you to understand that none of us really enjoy your presence! None of us would mind it if you just left us right now!” She spat, “You need to stop assuming that we are pleased with the situation! We all knew this was coming, so why are you acting like you’re so surprised?” Driftingcloud shut up and that, and just marched away from Featherbreeze to walk on the other side of her, beside Petalfall and Inkpelt. Petalfall gave her a hostile glare but Inkpelt didn’t react. The black tom wouldn’t react if he was bitten by a dog. Featherbreeze turned to look at her hopefully and Roboflight turned around, ignoring her old friend. There’s nothing between us now she reminded herself, she wasn’t there to support me when I needed her, when there was no one left. I can’t offer my friendship to her anymore. She felt a sad presence around the gray she-cat, but Roboflight refused to acknowledge it. Bravescar was paddling right beside her, as they continued the tiring walk. She heard Aquatail call out to her, “Hey, Roboflight, do we even know where we are anymore!” “There’s no way of knowing for sure,” she replied, “but my senses tell me that the ocean is this way,” she paused and looked and the wet soil beneath her feet, “There are also a lot of paw prints here,” she informed the blue she-cat, “I’m not sure if that means something but it’s the only lead we have.” Aquatail didn’t reply, but Roboflight guessed that she wanted to complain; only she couldn’t because of what had happened to Driftingcloud. Roboflight was wondering if Featherbreeze had needed to be so harsh, but they were all restless right now and they had no time for comments that might have been coming from a kit. Soon, the moon began to rise, and their pace slowed down even more, as Roboflight had to acknowledge the fact that it was time to stop. She turned around and flicked her tail, “Let’s set up the camp,” she told them, “And some cats will have to go hunting, so that we can eat in the morning, and then continue right away!” The cats nodded as some cats went off to catch some prey, while Roboflight joined the other half as they began to dig into the ground, to make a small shelter, where they would have to squeeze in. “Roboflight, are you awake? Roboflight get up!” Roboflight’s eyes fluttered open to find Petalfall standing over her, “Is something wrong?” she asked a little worried. “I don’t know,” the cream cat responded, “It’s just that Sandpelt keeps acting weird. He woke me up five times tonight.” Roboflight gave her a funny look, “How could you wake up after we almost collapsed from walking so much yesterday?” She shrugged, “I am a very light sleeper,” she responded, “I will wake up at almost any noise and Sandpelt made a lot of noise tonight. He wasn’t awake but he kept moaning and spinning around. He coughed a lot too, and when he rolled over, I could see sweat where he had been sleeping,” she looked worried; “Do you think he is sick?” Roboflight walked up to the pale tom, and tried to prod him awake, “Sandpelt, get up!” she called. The pack stirred and she leaned into his ear and whispered fiercely, “We have been attacked by rouges!” Still no response came from the pale tom. Roboflight sighed and turned to Petalfall, “I’m sorry, I'm not a medicine cat,” she responded and some worried glittered in the pretty she-cats eyes as Roboflight shrugged, “It’s probably nothing, though. It was a tiring day, for all of us. Maybe he got tired quicker than us, he just didn’t want to show it.” Petalfall shrugged and Roboflight walked back to where she had been sleeping, “Good night, Petalfall,” she murmured, “Try to go sleep,” As sleep began to take over Roboflight’s body once again she heard Petalfall snort, “It’s the mating quest, you’re not supposed to have good nights!” Roboflight was asleep before she could respond. When she woke up in the morning she saw, that there was a considerable amount of prey staked up. She walked over and picked out a rabbit, before walking out of the cramped den. Most of the pack was outside eating. The only missing cats where Sandpelt, who was still sleeping away, and Firehowl. Roboflight honestly couldn’t have minded it less that Firehowl was missing. She gazed around the clearing, trying to decide where she should sit. Not beside Featherbreeze, for sure. Petalfall was with Inkpelt and Driftingcloud, and Roboflight planned to avoid the whinny she-cat at all costs. Aquatail didn’t seem very inviting, there was a glum and angry glare in her eye, and she was eating with Bravescar and Boulderclaw. That didn’t really leave anyone else, so Roboflight just sat down on her own, closer to Aquatail’s group. As she chewed the squirrel she could barely taste its juicy flesh. Nothing seemed right anymore without Featherbreeze. She heard Aquatail arguing with the other cats in this group. Aquatail was trying to defend her, while Bravescar was being extremely critical and Boulderclaw remained neutral. Roboflight realized with distress that if the cats of the pack were willing to argue about a cat who was sitting within ear shot, that their relations with each other couldn’t get much better. When Firehowl returned, he looked around a little before sitting down beside Roboflight. He glared at her, and she glared back. The two cats didn’t say anything to each other as they ate their food for the day. Roboflight sighed, wishing she could enjoy the prey, which was a blessing from Starclan, more than she was at that moment. When the cats were all done eating, they waited right outside of the den. Roboflight urged the cats who were taking the longest to hurry up, and when there was no one left eating Roboflight turned to her pack. “Are we ready to go?” she asked them. They all nodded their heads and Dritingcloud stifled a yawn. Roboflight could tell that she wanted to say something but the whole pack was glaring at her, none of them appreciated her comment the previous day, and Roboflight doubted that she had the courage to make another complaint even if she walked so much that her paws fell off. “Alright then,” Roboflight finally said after the long awkward silence, “We should probably get going now.” She didn’t wait to see their tired faces. She just turned around and began to leave the sight. “Wait!” she heard Boulderclaw call, “Where’s Sandpelt?” Roboflight stopped, remembering that he had not been there, “Can you check the den, he might still be sleeping,” she called over her shoulder, “When you wake him up, give him some prey to eat along the way. We’ll walk slowly so that you can catch up!” He nodded and he dashed back into the den, while the rest of the pack followed Roboflight back out to the wild, where the trees grew wildly. They walked for a while, and Boulderclaw didn’t come to report that they had caught up, but eventually Roboflight assumed that they had. None of the cats were really comfortable with each other anymore. Different cats walked beside her at different points in time, none of which she had a real conversation with. At one point, however, both her nose and Aquatail's caught sniff of something that was their best clue as to which direction to go. “Oceanclan!” Roboflight had exclaimed before turning around, “We have our first lead,” she called, “We will follow Oceanclan!” A look of slight satisfaction entered most cats’ eyes but it was Featherbreeze who protested this time, “What if they went the wrong way too? We might be following them only to find ourselves lost even farther in the forest!” Roboflight had to admit she had a point, but once again it was a different member of the pack who scolded the whiner. “Well, I don’t think they can be in any worse shape than us,” Firehowl had rolled his eyes, “We are in such a desperate shape that anything would come good to us,” that tore away the light that had entered some cats eyes, “Oceanclan is obviously in better shape.” Featherbreeze had looked away, ashamed and nobody made anymore comments, as Roboflight changed her direction to follow the fresh Oceanclan scent. As they continued paddling with their sore pads in that direction, Roboflight felt a small chill coming up her back, as she felt a leaf fall on her nose. She shook it off and turned to the cat that was standing beside her. For now it was Inkpelt, “Leaf-bare is approaching,” she warned, “Soon the prey will be low, and there will be whitecough and then eventually greencough. We will be very unlucky that we don’t have a medicine cat apprentice among us.” “I think we are already unlucky,” Roboflight heard a mumble coming from behind her. Both cats turned around to find Bravescar staring at them with a dark expression on his face. “What makes you say that?” Roboflight asked suddenly worried, “Please tell me that you don’t have a disease yet! It would be far too early!” she shuddered. If a cat got sick, she didn’t think there would be any way out for them, unless they quit or one of the other clans were willing to cooperate so that they could save lives “Greencough will look beautiful next to this,” he murmured, “You’d better come check it out, Roboflight, you’re our leader.” Roboflight nodded, “Give me a second. I’ll be right there,” he nodded and turned around. She turned back to Inkpelt, “Could you take my place for a couple seconds?” He nodded, as if he really had a choice and Roboflight turned around and bounded towards the back of the pack where Bravescar and Petalfall were waiting for her. Roboflight turned around when she had caught up to them, and began to paddle alongside them. “What is it?” she asked. Bravescar took a step back so that Roboflight could see Sandpelt. She almost screeched. It was something she might have nightmares about for a long time. His eyes red all over, and his pale skin was now a greenish color. His nose was a little blue and he staggered as he walked. Some of his fur and fell off and the rest was very patchy, threatening to fall off any moment. He opened his mouth to say something, but he coughed and closed it. Roboflight noticed sweat oozing out of his body, and her eyes finally turned to his legs. His legs the leg which had been bitten by a snake was now a deep green color. Like trees, but without the beauty. She stared at it. There was hardly any fur left on it and the skin underneath looked thin and papery. “Stop!” she called to her pack, and they all turned around, curious at what might have made their leader so desperate. The cats all approached and some of them turned to look away when they saw his horrible condition. “It must have been that creature,” Bravescar moaned, “Why did he have to be so mouse-brained as to run after it.” “Stop it,” Petalfall snapped at him, “He is the one going through the pain, don’t make it worse for him, you jerk!” Bravescar snarled and Inkpelt stepped in between the two to split them apart. Driftingcloud had her eyes closed but see couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk, “We once had a bite from one of those creatures when I was a kit. I remember now, they were called snakes,” she shivered at the thought of them, “The cats who was bit also looked horrible, but the medicine cat had him back to normal within days, minus a few clumps of fur.” “But we don’t have a medicine cat,” Aquatail moaned. “Wow, Aquatail, you are one observant cat,” Firehowl rolled his eyes and Roboflight wanted to rake her claws across his face, “This is obviously Roboflight’s fault, she should have paid more attention to something that was potentially dangerous to one of our clan mates, but now that it is too late for that, the only alternative is to find a medicine cat from another clan.” Roboflight nodded and suddenly she regained her senses, now that she was used to Sandpelt’s horrifying look. “Come on,” she called to her pack and she ran back to the front, “We have to catch up with Oceanclan to see if they have a medicine cat apprentice.” Petalfall gasped, “Are we seriously going to ask another clan to heal one of our clan mates. That will make us look weak. They will demand something in return and we will be at an even bigger disadvantage.” Roboflight looked at her, “We have to;” she replied grimly, “Sandpelt’s life depends on it.” She sighed, “Then we should hurry up before we lose them,” “That’s what she was saying,” Featherbreeze rolled her eyes, and Petalfall glared at her. Roboflight didn’t give them time to argue. She just continued to follow the scent a very brisk pace. The pack didn’t have any choice but to follow, her almost running. Roboflight hardly felt the soreness in her pads. She knew she should stop but she couldn’t bear the thought of being responsible for a cat’s death. It didn’t take them long to catch up to Oceanclan. They were able to see the dark pelted cats at a distance by evening. As tired as she was Roboflight mustered all of her energy, “OCEANCLAN!” she yowled. The cats all turned around. Roboflight waved her tail, and began bounding towards the other clan, with the rest of her pack at her tail. She immediately recognized the tom that she had fought with before, when the pack turned around and began to walk towards them cautiously. He seemed to be leading the pack. “Roboflight!” his eyes widened when he noticed it was her, “I thought you left your pack.” She rolled her eyes, “I lied. You think I would tell you if I was lost from my pack?” he shrugged, and Roboflight couldn’t help noticing the way the setting sun reflected over his back, made it look like his pelt was the dark night and the reflection was the moon. “Tidalpelt,” one of the cats interrupted, “Just give us the signal and their pelts are off.” He grinned at Roboflight, “What do you think, ginger, should I do it?” “NO!” Roboflight yowled, “We aren’t here to fight,” she paused slowly and forced herself to say the next words as both packs looked at her expectantly. She reminded herself of Sandpelt whose body was rotting by the second, “We are here for help.” Some of the Oceanclan cats laughed and Tidalpelt gave her a curious look, “With what?” Roboflight signaled for her cats to bring Sandpelt up. When the cats from Oceanclan saw his form they gasped and some even screeched. “We have no medicine cat,” Roboflight explained, “And we know that you have a medicine cat, so we need yours to heal Sandpelt. It shouldn’t take her too long,” there was a pleading tone in her voice. Tidalpelt, who was disgusted by Sandpelt’s state, seemed to be considering it when a sharp voice from behind snapped, “This is my decision, so I should get to choose,” A blue she-cat stepped out from behind the pack, “Rainfall, I think you should consider helping him…” Tidalpelt began but she cut him off. “I am the medicine cat, and I will not betray my pack by helping another clan,” she protested, “I will not help him.” “But the medicine code extends beyond boundaries!” Roboflight protested. She shrugged, “I am not a full medicine cat until I finish this quest. So I don’t have to follow any code yet.” “If you aren’t a full medicine cat then you shouldn’t have the right to make your own decision!” Roboflight shot back, at the cruel she-cat. “I shouldn’t,” she responded, “But you shouldn’t either. I will not help an enemy, no matter what state they are in!” Roboflight looked sadly at Sandpelt, “Please!” she begged, “You can’t leave a cat like this…” “That’s exactly what I will do,” she responded before turning around and continuing to walk. She turned back to face her pack, “Come on!” she cried to them, “Let’s go!” Tidalpelt looked at Roboflight sadly, “I’m sorry,” he whispered and she could tell he really was. She sadly dipped her head as he turned around to join his pack. The Oceanclan cats paddled away as Mountainclan remained in place, watching sadly. Roboflight heard Sandpelt let out what must have been a very painful cough and Bravescar walked up to her, “What will we do now? We can’t just leave him to die!” “We won’t,” she assured him, “None of you are going to like what I will say next but we don’t really have a choice,” she slowly began as all of the cats looked at her curiously, “We have to steal Rainfall.” Utter silence.
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